US9824897B2 - Thermal processing in silicon - Google Patents

Thermal processing in silicon Download PDF

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US9824897B2
US9824897B2 US14/905,711 US201414905711A US9824897B2 US 9824897 B2 US9824897 B2 US 9824897B2 US 201414905711 A US201414905711 A US 201414905711A US 9824897 B2 US9824897 B2 US 9824897B2
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hydrogen
crystalline silicon
silicon region
heating
silicon
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US20160172213A1 (en
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Brett Jason Hallam
Matthew Bruce Edwards
Stuart Ross Wenham
Phillip George Hamer
Catherine Emily Chan
Chee Mun Chong
Pei Hsuan Lu
Ly Mai
Li Hui SONG
Adeline Sugianto
Alison Maree Wenham
Guang Qi XU
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NewSouth Innovations Pty Ltd
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    • H01L21/18—Manufacture or treatment of semiconductor devices or of parts thereof the devices having potential barriers, e.g. a PN junction, depletion layer or carrier concentration layer the devices having semiconductor bodies comprising elements of Group IV of the Periodic Table or AIIIBV compounds with or without impurities, e.g. doping materials
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Definitions

  • the present invention relates to methods of manufacturing solar cells and in particular the invention provides new method of hydrogenation of silicon material.
  • Hydrogenation of crystalline silicon involves the bonding of hydrogen atoms to crystallographic defects or contamination within the silicon lattice in a way that prevents that defect or contaminant from acting as a recombination site for minority charge carriers. This is known as passivation of the particular recombination site. This is important for semiconductor devices that require long minority carrier lifetimes such as solar cells and particularly where cheap silicon is used that often has poor crystallographic quality and/or purity and therefore needs passivation to bring the quality to acceptable levels for high efficiency solar cells.
  • Low cost silicon in general has much higher densities of silicon crystallographic defects and/or unwanted impurities. These lower the minority carrier lifetime of the silicon and therefore reduce the efficiencies of solar cells made from such material. Passivation of such defects and contaminants to improve minority carrier lifetimes is therefore an important part of being able to fabricate high efficiency solar cells when using lower quality silicon than that routinely used by the microelectronics industry such as with floatzone (FZ) wafers formed from semiconductor grade silicon.
  • FZ floatzone
  • H + can interact with ionised boron atoms (B ⁇ ) to form neutral boron-hydrogen (B—H) complexes.
  • H ⁇ can interact with ionised phosphorus atoms (P + ) to form neutral phosphorus-hydrogen (P—H) complexes.
  • Boron (B) is a valency 3 element which can be used to dope silicon to produce p-type material when taking on substitutional sites within the silicon lattice. Each such boron atom therefore produces a free “hole”, leaving the boron atom with a fixed negative charge. If atomic hydrogen is directed into such a p-type region and if the hydrogen takes on the positive charge state (H+), strong electrostatic forces exist between the B ⁇ and H+ atoms, leading to a high probability that the two will react to form a B—H bond, therefore trapping the hydrogen atom at that location but while simultaneously deactivating the boron atom such that electronically it acts as if it were no longer there.
  • H+ positive charge state
  • phosphorus (P) is a valency 5 element which can be used to dope silicon to produce n-type material when taking on substitutional sites within the silicon lattice. Each such phosphorus atom therefore produces a free “electron”, leaving the phosphorus atom with a fixed positive charge. If atomic hydrogen is directed into such an n-type region and if the hydrogen takes on the negative charge state (H ⁇ ), strong electrostatic forces exist between the P+ and H ⁇ atoms, leading to a high probability that the two will react to form a P—H bond, therefore trapping the hydrogen atom at that location but while simultaneously deactivating the phosphorus atom such that electronically it acts as if it were no longer there.
  • H ⁇ negative charge state
  • the dissociation of the dopant-hydrogen complexes is difficult as even if there is sufficient thermal energy to dissociate the complex (e.g. >150° C.), the coulombic attraction between the dopant atom and the atomic hydrogen (H ⁇ for phosphorus and H + for boron) prevents the escape of the hydrogen atom, and a rapid reformation of the dopant-hydrogen complex is likely.
  • the dissociation of the dopant-hydrogen complexes is difficult, as even if there is sufficient thermal energy to dissociate the complex (e.g. >150° C.), the coulombic attraction between the dopant atom and the atomic hydrogen (H ⁇ for phosphorus and H + for boron) prevents the escape of the hydrogen atom, and a rapid reformation of the dopant-hydrogen complex is likely.
  • Minority carrier injection has been observed to enhance the dissociation of dopant-hydrogen complexes. Through minority carrier injection, the dissociation process can occur at much lower temperatures than observed with the absence of minority carrier injection.
  • the importance of the minority carrier injection is noted with regard to the associated changes to the charge state of hydrogen.
  • H + charged hydrogen species
  • H 0 neutral hydrogen atom
  • the hydrogen has high mobility and is unhindered by Coulombic attraction.
  • H 0 is a relatively unstable state and auto-ionises back to H + in the order of a nanosecond.
  • the H 0 is converted back to H + before it has time to diffuse away from the boron atom and once again forms a B—H complex.
  • the H + may absorb 2 electrons and form H ⁇ , which is a relatively stable charge state and in this charge state, the boron atom repels the H ⁇ and it can therefore move throughout the silicon.
  • Hydrogen passivation is typically performed on partially fabricated solar cells using predominately a thermal process.
  • hydrogenation is often incorporated into the metallization process, however the presence of molten metal and silicon can act as a sink for hydrogen.
  • subsequent thermal process can often reactivate some of the passivated recombination sites therefore leading to inadequate hydrogen passivation in silicon solar cell modules.
  • a method for the processing of a silicon device having a crystalline silicon region containing an internal hydrogen source.
  • the method may comprise:
  • the device may also be illuminated during a cooling step following the heating step.
  • a method for the processing of a silicon device having a crystalline silicon region containing an internal hydrogen source.
  • the method may comprise:
  • a method for the processing of a silicon device may have a doped region (e.g. valency 3 dopant such as boron, aluminium gallium—or a valency 5 dopant such as phosphorus) in which some of the dopant atoms are deactivated by combining with a hydrogen atom.
  • the method may comprise:
  • the crystalline silicon region containing the hydrogen source may comprise atomic hydrogen contained interstitially within the crystalline silicon of the crystalline silicon region. For example, with hydrogen containing dielectric layers on one or both surfaces of a silicon wafer, heating the wafer for several seconds to a temperature above 700° C. will release large numbers of hydrogen atoms into the silicon, such that if this is done in the dark or if done in the light but with the cool-down carried out in the dark or at low light intensity, then most of the H atoms will occupy interstitial sites.
  • the crystalline silicon region containing the hydrogen source may comprise a doped crystalline silicon region in which some of the dopant atoms are deactivated by combining with a hydrogen atom. During the process some of the deactivated dopant atoms may be reactivated by illuminating the doped region while it is at an elevated temperature.
  • the doped region may be a surface region of the device.
  • the illumination from the at least one light sources may be provided at levels whereby the cumulative power of all the incident photons with sufficient energy to generate electron hole pairs within the silicon is at least 50 mW/cm 2 , or 60 mW/cm 2 , or 70 mW/cm 2 , or 80 mW/cm 2 , or 90 mW/cm 2 , or 100 mW/cm 2 , or 150 mW/cm 2 , 2000 mW/cm 2 , or 300 mW/cm 2 , or 400 mW/cm 2 , or 500 mW/cm 2 , or 600 mW/cm 2 , or 700 mW/cm 2 , or 800 mW/cm 2 , or 900 mW/cm 2 , or 1000 mW/cm 2 , or 1500 mW/cm 2 , or 2000 mW/cm 2 , or 3000 mW/cm 2 , or 5000 m
  • the heating of the device may comprise heating at least a region of the device to at least 100° C.
  • the heating may be followed by cooling the device while simultaneously illuminating at least some of the device with at least one light source whereby the cumulative power of all the incident photons with sufficient energy to generate electron hole pairs within the silicon is at least 20 mW/cm 2 .
  • the heating of the device may comprise heating the device to at least 140° C.
  • the heating of the device may comprise heating the device to at least 150° C., 180° C., or 200° C. depending on the conditions required and the thermal sensitivity of existing structures in the device.
  • Minority carrier concentrations may be controlled, through the use of light and heat, during a cool-down period after heating, to maintain hydrogen charge states during cool-down to minimise reactivation of defects, or reactivation of dopants, to which hydrogen has previously bound.
  • the dopant introduced in excess of requirements may be a p-type (valency 3) dopant such as boron, aluminium or gallium or an n-type (valency 3) dopant such as phosphorus.
  • valency 3 dopant such as boron, aluminium or gallium
  • n-type (valency 3) dopant such as phosphorus.
  • the method is particularly effective when boron is uses as a dopant in silicon.
  • the doped region may also be doped with boron and phosphorus.
  • Hydrogen may be initially introduced into the silicon by forming a dielectric which contains hydrogen, such as silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, aluminium oxides etc. on a surface of the silicon and subsequently heating the device to migrate the hydrogen into the silicon.
  • dielectric hydrogen sources will be formed (at least temporarily) on each of the front and rear surfaces of the silicon.
  • the hydrogen may be introduced into the silicon from the hydrogen source by heating the device in the absence of illumination or in low illumination conditions (e.g. only unavoidable light emitting from the light source).
  • FIG. 1 diagrammatically represents a p-type silicon crystal lattice structure (boron doped);
  • FIG. 2 diagrammatically represents the p-type silicon crystal lattice structure of FIG. 1 after hydrogenation
  • FIG. 3 diagrammatically represents an n-type silicon crystal lattice structure (phosphorus doped);
  • FIG. 4 diagrammatically represents the n-type silicon crystal lattice structure of FIG. 3 after hydrogenation
  • FIG. 6 diagrammatically represents the n-type silicon crystal lattice structure of FIG. 4 showing the reactivation of the phosphorus dopant with the application of heat and light;
  • FIG. 7 diagrammatically illustrates a textured n-type wafer in which an embodiment of the invention may be formed
  • FIG. 8 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 7 after initial doping of the front and rear surfaces
  • FIG. 9 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 8 after dielectric layers are added
  • FIG. 10 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 8 after patterning of the top surface dielectric
  • FIG. 11 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 10 after hydrogenation of the emitter region:
  • FIG. 12 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 11 after emitter metallisation is applied
  • FIG. 13 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 12 after patterning of the rear surface dielectric
  • FIG. 14 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 13 after hydrogenation of the rear doped region:
  • FIG. 15 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 14 after rear surface metallisation is applied
  • FIG. 16 diagrammatically illustrates a textured p-type wafer in which an embodiment of the invention may be formed
  • FIG. 17 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 16 after initial doping of the front and rear surfaces
  • FIG. 18 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 17 after dielectric layers are added
  • FIG. 19 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 18 after patterning of the top surface dielectric
  • FIG. 20 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 19 after hydrogenation of the emitter region
  • FIG. 21 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 20 after emitter metallisation is applied
  • FIG. 22 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 21 after patterning of the rear surface dielectric
  • FIG. 23 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 22 after hydrogenation of the rear doped region:
  • FIG. 24 diagrammatically illustrates the wafer of FIG. 23 after rear surface metallisation is applied
  • FIG. 27 diagrammatically illustrates a cooling station which may be used to cool an encapsulated module
  • FIGS. 28 & 29 diagrammatically illustrate two examples of belt furnaces modified to provide illumination in the heating and cooling zones.
  • Processes described herein provide a method for altering the active dopant density through simple hydrogenation processes, by reactivating dopants to free hydrogen stored in dopant—hydrogen complexes such that the released hydrogen is available to passivate recombination sites within the device.
  • the process uses the lamination step which is typically the final thermal process in cell manufacture to passivate defects in the cell. Because the lamination is the final thermal process in the manufacturing sequence it represents the last point at which passivation of defects might be inadvertently reversed. By creating conditions for actively passivating the cell during the lamination step a much better passivation should be expected.
  • Hydrogen may be incorporated into silicon by a number of methods but one commonly used method involves depositing a dielectric hydrogen source on one or more surfaces of the silicon and heating the structure to release hydrogen from the dielectric into the silicon. For example, with hydrogen containing dielectric layers on one or both surfaces of a silicon wafer, heating the wafer for several seconds to a temperature above 700° C. will release large numbers of hydrogen atoms into the silicon, such that if this is done in the dark or if done in the light but with the cool-down carried out in the dark or at low light intensity, then most of the H atoms will occupy interstitial sites. However once in the silicon the hydrogen may become trapped, by combining with dopant atoms in the silicon.
  • p-type silicon it is desirable to use minority carrier injection, in particular through the use of illumination to increase the fractional concentration of H 0 and H ⁇ .
  • using a pulsed light source can transition through conditions that are more favourable to generate the desired minority charge species of hydrogen or all charge species whilst minimizing increases in temperature. Doing so, allows the use of lower instantaneous illumination intensities than that are required for steady state conditions which lead to an increase in the temperature of the silicon.
  • the hydrogen can be left in doped surface regions for use later to passivate defects throughout the silicon, or the passivation may be performed early in the processing sequence in which case the hydrogen must be distributed throughout the silicon at that time. Further passivation can then be performed later using the distributed hydrogen to repassivate any defects that have been reactivated during other processing such as contact formation.
  • P-type silicon has been found to be particularly useful for hydrogen storage although n-type silicon can also store hydrogen.
  • the hydrogen is distributed throughout the silicon, it is desirable to trap the hydrogen in the silicon such that it cannot escape during subsequent processing, particularly at the metal/Si interfaces.
  • Performing a process which does not incorporate minority carrier injection leads to a high fractional concentration of H + which can become trapped by the substitutional boron atoms, particularly when the thermal treatment is performed below 150 degrees Celsius. Subsequently, the boron atoms can be reactivated to release the bound hydrogen.
  • the hydrogen can be released from the boron atoms through the use of minority carrier injection and/or temperatures above 150 degrees to allow the passivation of defects within the device.
  • either a pulsed or continuous illumination source may be used.
  • this process is performed during the last thermal process in the production of a photovoltaic module, which is typically the module lamination process.
  • the release of hydrogen from the trapped states can be performed during the lamination process whereby the lamination tool provides sufficient illumination intensities to increase the fractional concentrations of H 0 and H ⁇ , at a temperature typically around 150 degrees Celsius.
  • the illumination source is preferably pulsed to allow high illumination intensities to generate high concentrations of the minority hydrogen charge species whilst avoiding excessive temperature increases.
  • illumination is also incorporated into the cool down section of the lamination tool to ensure effective hydrogen passivation is retained in the finished module.
  • the hydrogenation process as described above can be performed in such a way as to manipulate the charge states of the hydrogen so that it can facilitate either increased or decreased formation of the B—H bonds (deactivation of the boron atoms) and therefore also either increased or decreased breaking of the B—H bonds (with corresponding reactivation of the boron atoms).
  • Extra dopant atoms such as boron can be diffused, grown, implanted etc. into the silicon, and then in the presence of a hydrogen source such as from a dielectric, the extra dopants can be deactivated by a process that manipulates the charge state of hydrogen to enable high concentrations of H + to bond with and deactivate the B ⁇ .
  • a hydrogen source such as from a dielectric
  • this can be done by performing hydrogenation at a temperature in the range 200-500° C. in the dark or with low illumination.
  • Each boron atom that is deactivated is therefore bound to a hydrogen atom, so that hydrogen atoms can be located all throughout the silicon wafer in the areas that were deactivated by the hydrogenation process, essentially creating internal stores of hydrogen throughout the wafer.
  • These hydrogen stores can then be accessed via a hydrogenation process by providing sufficient thermal energy to break the bonds while simultaneously raising the electron concentration sufficiently (such as via illumination with high enough intensity light) to increase the percentage of the atomic hydrogen in the neutral or negative charge states that can therefore escape from their respective boron atoms.
  • Such released hydrogen is therefore again mobile and able to be used for other purposes, such as bulk or localised hydrogenation or passivation of surface, bulk or grain boundary defects in the silicon, either before or after completion of manufacture of the device.
  • boron (B) is a valency 3 element which can be used to dope silicon to produce p-type material when taking on substitutional sites within the silicon lattice, as illustrated in FIG. 1 .
  • Each such boron atom therefore produces a free “hole” 11 , leaving the boron atom with a fixed negative charge. Additional holes 12 , 13 are seen in FIG. 1 , which will have moved away from the doping sights where they were created. Referring to FIG.
  • the hydrogen may take on the positive charge state (H + ), by giving up two electrons which may subsequently combine with a holes 13 as the hydrogen passes through the silicon lattice.
  • phosphorus (P) is a valency 5 element which can be used to dope silicon to produce n-type material when taking on substitutional sites within the silicon lattice, as illustrated in FIG. 3 .
  • Each such phosphorus atom therefore produces a free “electron” 31 , leaving the phosphorus atom with a fixed positive charge.
  • the dissociation of the dopant-hydrogen complexes is difficult, as even if there is sufficient thermal energy to dissociate the complex, the Coulombic attraction between the dopant atom and the atomic hydrogen (H ⁇ for phosphorus and H + for boron) prevents the escape of the hydrogen atom, and a rapid reformation of the dopant-hydrogen complex is likely.
  • hydrogen may be introduced in the appropriate charge state to deactivate the dopant.
  • the dominant charge state for hydrogen in p-type silicon is H + and thus it is relatively simple to deactivate boron dopant atoms close to a silicon surface, however the H + will not have high mobility and will not travel far before being captured.
  • the charge state may be altered by heating which can allow H + to penetrate further into a doped region and with removal of the heat source will lock the hydrogen in when it has bonded with a dopant.
  • heating alone is less effective when trying to release hydrogen that is bonded to dopant atoms, to reactivate the dopant atoms, as the hydrogen will re-bond, particularly during cooling.
  • H ⁇ is the dominant charge state and while heating will help in increasing the size of the region of deactivation of n-type dopant atoms, it will not be particularly effective in reactivation.
  • FIG. 5 it can be seen that if sufficient electrons are present, the hydrogen may join with more than one electron to form a negative hydrogen ion.
  • the equivalent process for n-type material is illustrated in FIG. 6 where the coulombic forces holding hydrogen and boron atoms together may again be disrupted by thermal energy 61 , releasing H ⁇ ions. Photons 62 , 63 striking the silicon lattice may release electrons to form electron-hole pairs and the H ⁇ ions may subsequently donate one of their electrons to one of the generated holes (which, although shown in FIG. 6 to be adjacent to the dopant that generated it, may have in fact moved away before recombining) to form neutral hydrogen atoms.
  • Boron can be intentionally added to the silicon.
  • the boron can be de-activated (or re-activated as desired)—by enabling boron & hydrogen to bond together (or break and separate if boron reactivation is desired).
  • profiling resistivity in an emitter to form a selective Emitter which can be done in a number of ways including but not limited to:
  • an n-type wafer 70 is textured 71 ;
  • a phosphorus diffusion 93 may also be added to the rear surface to again notionally achieve an n + region with a sheet resistance of 45-55 ⁇ / ⁇ (but which could be anywhere within a range of 1-80 ⁇ / ⁇ ) as also seen in FIG. 8 ;
  • a front surface dielectric layer 93 and a rear surface dielectric layer 94 are then deposited as seen in FIG. 9 .
  • the dielectric layers 93 & 94 act as hydrogen sources and may be selected from hydrogen containing dielectric materials such as silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, aluminium oxides etc.; 5)
  • the front surface dielectric layer 93 is patterned as seen in FIG. 10 , to create openings 105 for emitter metallisation. This can be done by a laser 101 , by screen printing or inkjet patterning or other suitable known processes; 6) Referring to FIG. 11 , hydrogenation of the emitter is performed, in areas of silicon 112 where the dielectric 93 has not been removed (i.e.
  • the percentage of atomic hydrogen in the positive charge state is maximised by keeping the electron concentration low such as by minimising the light generated by the heating sources which has photons with energy levels above the bandgap of silicon (1.12 eV) and by avoiding temperatures significantly above the range of 300°-500° C. necessary for reasonable hydrogen mobility and the release of hydrogen from the dielectric hydrogen sources 93 .
  • Metal contacts 128 may then be applied to the exposed p+ regions 82 , such as by plating or aligned screen printing, as seen in FIG. 12 .
  • the rear surface dielectric layer 94 is patterned as seen in FIG. 13 , to create openings 136 for rear metallisation.
  • Hydrogenation performed in a manner which maximises the amount of H ⁇ present will enable the H ⁇ to bond with the P + thereby de-activating the phosphorus and creating higher sheet resistivity material in these regions, while leaving lower sheet resistivity regions 83 where the dielectric hydrogen source 94 has been removed to form openings 136 for the subsequent formation of metal contacts.
  • the percentage of atomic hydrogen in the negative charge state is maximised by keeping the hole concentration low such as by minimising the light generated by the heating sources which has photons with energy levels above the bandgap of silicon (1.12 eV) and by avoiding temperatures significantly above the 300°-500° C. range that is desirable for reasonable hydrogen mobility and the release of hydrogen from the dielectric hydrogen sources 94 .
  • Metal contacts 156 may then be applied to the exposed n + regions 83 , such as by plating or aligned screen printing, as seen in FIG. 15 .
  • FIG. 15 can also be achieved by variations of the above process.
  • a p-type wafer 160 is textured 161 ;
  • a boron diffusion 173 may also be added to the rear surface to again, notionally achieve an p ⁇ region with a sheet resistance of 45-55 ⁇ / ⁇ (but which could be anywhere within a range of 1-80 ⁇ / ⁇ ) as also seen in FIG. 17 ;
  • a front surface dielectric layer 183 and a rear surface dielectric layer 184 are then deposited as seen in FIG. 18 .
  • the dielectric layers 183 & 184 act as hydrogen sources and may be selected from hydrogen containing dielectric materials such as silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, aluminium oxides etc.; 5)
  • the front surface dielectric layer 183 is patterned as seen in FIG. 19 , to create openings 195 for emitter metallisation. This can be done by a laser 191 , by screen printing or ink jet patterning or other suitable known processes; 6) Referring to FIG. 20 , hydrogenation of the emitter is performed, in areas of silicon 202 where the dielectric 183 has not been removed (i.e.
  • the percentage of atomic hydrogen in the negative charge state is maximised by keeping the hole concentration low such as by minimising the light generation of carriers by minimising the light from the heaters which has photons with energy levels above the bandgap of silicon (1.12 eV) and by avoiding temperatures significantly above 300°-500° C. that is typically necessary for reasonable hydrogen mobility and the release of hydrogen from the dielectric hydrogen sources 183 .
  • Metal contacts 218 may then be applied to the exposed n + regions 172 , such as by plating or aligned screen printing, as seen in FIG. 21 . 8)
  • the rear surface dielectric layer 184 is patterned as seen in FIG. 22 , to create openings 226 for rear metallisation.
  • Metal contacts 246 may then be applied to the exposed p + regions 83 , such as by plating or aligned screen printing, as seen in FIG. 24 .
  • FIG. 24 can also be achieved by variations of the above process.
  • a modified laminator is illustrated in the opened ( FIG. 25 ) and closed ( FIG. 26 ) states.
  • the encapsulating layers will generally comprise a glass topsheet 2502 and a bonding layer 2503 such as ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) on the front surface and a glass backsheet or white backsheet 2504 and a bonding layer 2505 again such as EVA, on the rear surface.
  • EVA ethylene vinyl acetate
  • the laminates 2507 are placed into the laminator 2508 as seen in FIG. 25 .
  • the laminates 2507 are placed on the platen 2509 which is capable of being heated when the laminator is in operation.
  • the platen 2509 is located in a lower cavity 2511 of a lower housing 2512 which has an outlet port 2513 connected to a vacuum pump (not shown).
  • An upper housing 2514 includes an upper cavity 2515 , closed by a transparent (or at least translucent) flexible membrane 2516 .
  • Lamps 2517 are located within the upper cavity 2515 directed towards the platen 2507 to illuminate the solar cell 2501 during the lamination and cooling process.
  • An inlet port 2518 connects to the upper cavity 2515 and the port is connected to a pressure pump (not shown) to allow pressurisation of the upper cavity 2515 .
  • Seals 2519 are provided between the upper housing 2514 and lower housing 2512 to seal the lower cavity 2511 when the laminator is closed as seen in FIG. 26 .
  • the laminate 2507 is placed on the platen 2509 and the laminator closed.
  • the lower cavity 2511 is then evacuated to prevent bubbles in the lamination and a higher pressure is established in the upper cavity 2515 relative to the lower cavity 2511 , to press the laminations together as seen in FIG. 26 (Note however that the upper cavity 2515 may still be at a pressure which is less than atmospheric pressure).
  • the platen 2509 is then heated to 150-200° C. to fuse the laminations together.
  • the lamps 2517 are illuminated to illuminate the cell 2501 with a cumulative power of all the incident photons with sufficient energy to generate electron hole pairs within the silicon (in other words photons with energy levels above the bandgap of silicon of 1.12 eV) is at least 20 mW/cm 2 , thereby generating electron-hole pairs.
  • the combined heat and illumination will cause hydrogen to be released from dopants to which is it bonded and will allow at least some of the hydrogen to assume a charge state that enables it to move within the silicon to passivate recombination sites within the silicon.
  • the heaters in the platen 25019 are turned off and the now fused laminate 2507 is allowed to cool while the illumination is maintained to minimise recombination of the hydrogen with the dopants.
  • the solar cell 2501 is sufficiently cool (say ⁇ 100° C. but preferably ⁇ 40° C.) the lights 2517 and the pressure and vacuum pumps turned off and the laminator opened so that the laminate 2507 may be removed.
  • the laminates 2507 after they are bonded may be removed from the platen 2509 of the laminator seen in FIGS. 25 & 26 and placed in a cooling station as illustrated, by way of example in FIG. 27 .
  • the cooling station has a platform 2712 that supports the laminated solar cell module 2507 , and a hood 2714 in which lights 2717 are mounted to maintain illumination of the device during cooling.
  • the hood 2714 might not be fitted with lights and the cooling may take place in the dark or in ambient light.
  • a cooling station might also include belt transport and be configured similarly to the sooling stage of the belt furnace described below, with or without illumination.
  • Belt furnaces are commonly used for heat processing of semiconductor devices. By modifying a belt furnace to incorporate illumination sources in the heating and cooling stages, such that heating and cooling may be performed under illumination, belt furnaces may be used to perform hydrogenation or to redistribute hydrogen in the device being processed. Such a modified belt furnace may also be used in a “dark” mode with some or all of the illumination disabled for dark processing.
  • a first modified belt furnace 2801 is illustrated.
  • the furnace of FIG. 28 has a heat resistant belt 2802 (e.g. a ceramic roller or metal link style belt that passes through the furnace and extends from each end for loading and unloading.
  • the furnace has a heating zone 2805 and a cooling zone 2806 . Through which the bell passes.
  • the heating zone has heating lamps 2803 that direct heat at the belt 2802 and anything carried on the belt, such as a wafer 2811 undergoing hydrogenation in the process to make a solar cell.
  • the heating lamps 2803 typically produce radiant heat, and may be high-powered lights that produce large amounts of radiant heat such as infrared lamps.
  • the heaters may be high powered lights which are chosen (or driven differently) to also provide high levels of light.
  • supplementary lighting 2809 may optionally also be provided.
  • light levels from 0.1 suns up to 100 suns might be provided in the heating zone 2805 , in the cooling zone of a conventional belt furnace, cooling is performed in the dark.
  • lamps 2804 are provided in the cooling zone 2806 such that solar cells processed in the belt furnace may be illuminated during cool-down.
  • the lamps 2804 in the cooling zone may advantageously provide less heating than the lamps in the heating zone. This may be achieved by using cooler or more efficient (e.g.
  • the lamps 2804 in the cooling zone 2806 may be pulsed (taking advantage of the lifetime of the light induced charge states and/or the lifetime of the generated electron-hole pairs) to reduce their average heat output.
  • the cooling zone 2806 may optionally be cooled by passing cooling air through the cooling zone using inlet fans 2807 and exhaust fans 2808 to counteract any heating effects of the lamps 2804 , to more rapidly bring the target device below a temperature at which the hydrogen passivated defects in the device will become stable.
  • the cooling air may be chilled.
  • other gasses may be introduced at low temperature to assist cooling.
  • a second modified belt furnace 2801 is illustrated.
  • the furnace of FIG. 37 has a heat resistant belt 2802 (e.g. a metal link style belt which passes through the furnace and extends from each end for loading and unloading).
  • the furnace has a heating zone 2805 and a cooling zone 2806 , through which the belt passes.
  • the heating zone in this case has plate heaters 2810 , which direct heat from beneath the belt 2802 to heat anything carried on the belt, such as a wafer 2811 undergoing hydrogenation in the process to make a solar cell.
  • supplementary lighting 2809 is provided in the heating zone 2805 , as there would be no lighting in the heating zone of a conventional belt furnace, which used plate or resistive heaters. Again, ideally light levels of up to 100 suns might be provided in the heating zone 2805 .
  • cooling zone of a conventional belt furnace cooling is performed in the dark.
  • lamps 2804 are provided in the cooling zone 2806 such that solar cells processed in the belt furnace may be illuminated during cool-down.
  • the cooling zone 2806 of FIG. 29 may be identical to that of FIG. 28 .

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